Playboy
wins copyright battle over web links to its images
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[September 09, 2016]
By Julia Fioretti
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -
Playboy won a legal fight to stop a website from posting
links to images published without permission on
Thursday, a decision which could have far wider
consequences across the Internet.
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The European Union's top court decided that posting such
links infringes copyright when the website doing it is seeking
to profit from pictures published without permission.
Sanoma, Playboy's Dutch publisher had sought to get website
GeenStijl, which describes itself as one of the most visited
news websites in the Netherlands, to remove a web link to photos
of a TV celebrity Britt Dekker which were posted illegally.
"It is undisputed that GS Media (which owns GreenStijl)provided
the hyperlinks to the files containing the photos for profit and
that Sanoma had not authorised the publication of those photos
on the internet," the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the
European Union (ECJ) said in a statement.
"When hyperlinks are posted for profit, it may be expected that
the person who posted such a link should carry out the checks
necessary to ensure that the work concerned is not illegally
published."

GS Media said the ruling was a blow to press freedom.
"If commercial media companies - such as GeenStijl - can no
longer freely and fearlessly hyperlink it will be difficult to
report on newsworthy new questions, leaked information and
internal struggles and unsecure networks in large companies," it
said on GeenStijl's website.
The issue of hyperlinking to photos and articles has become a
divisive issue with the spread of the internet. Content owners
argue that the ease with which people can post links to
copyrighted material on the internet infringes their rights
while internet users say restricting people's ability to post
links goes against the principle of freedom of information.
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Creativity Works, an association representing publishers, film and
music producers, said: "Taking action against illegal sites is not
about preventing access to creative content but to protect consumers
and stop pirates who do not contribute to Europe’s cultural
diversity while making a business out of exploiting content that's
not theirs."
The ECJ recognised that the internet "is of particular importance to
freedom of expression and of information and that hyperlinks
contribute to its sound operation and to the exchange of opinions
and information as well."
Therefore it could be difficult for individuals posting such links
to know if they are doing it legally, the court said.
However, if a person should have been aware because the owner
informed him or he is doing it for profit, then the posting of a
link infringes copyright law, the court said.
The European Commission, the EU executive, is set next week to
propose tougher rules on publishing copyrighted content, including a
new exclusive right for news publishers to ask search engines like
Google <GOOGL.O> to pay to show snippets of their articles.
(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Elaine
Hardcastle and Mark Potter)
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